krobinett@journalnet.com

POCATELLO - Storm Shelley didn't look like he was playing his first basketball game of the season.

Caz Alley didn't, either.

Together, the pair of Century boys' basketball players scored in bunches and led the Diamondbacks to an exciting 67-65 overtime victory against Rigby on Wednesday at Century High.

"That," Alley said, "was a good way to start the season."

Making 3-pointers with defenders in his face and driving layups at key moments, Shelley scored a career-high 24 points and appeared to be in midseason form.

Coming up with big buckets and important free throws, Alley scored 17 points and also looked sharp in his debut.

Combined with a solid effort from their other teammates, it was just enough for Century to move to 1-0 and drop Rigby to 1-1. Not bad considering the Trojans are taller than the Diamondbacks at almost every position.

"This was a good win for our team," Century coach Cody Shelley said. "They're a good team. They're going to be one of the best teams in their conference."

They were almost better than Century.

Despite Storm Shelley and Alley combining for 41 points, Rigby still was able to fight back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

Alley made a jump shot with only 20 seconds remaining in regulation to put Century on top 56-54, but Rigby answered at the buzzer with a bucket of its own to extend the game.

At that point, Cody Shelley said he was worried.

"They had all the momentum going into overtime," he said. "We had a nice eight-point lead, but we didn't play like it and they got back in the game. We were really challenged there."

Storm Shelley answered it immediately. The senior guard made back-to-back driving layups to get overtime started and later made two free throws to help Century pull away for good.

He didn't want to lose.

"I figured coming into the season that I would need to be up there scoring points for us to win games," he said. "So that's what I tried to do. But 24 points, that's more than I was expecting."

So was the season opener as a whole.

"It was a good game," Cody Shelley said. "A confidence-boosting game."